Morning Bell: Get the Facts at FamilyFacts.org

Conn Carroll / March 07, 2011

Last week, when the National Center for Health Statistics released the latest results from the National Survey of Family Growth, The Washington Post reported that one finding “may surprise those bewailing a permissive and eros-soaked popular culture: More than one-quarter of people interviewed in their late teens and early 20s had never had sex.” Many conservatives do rightly criticize our current “eros-soaked popular culture.” But those conservatives who follow The Heritage Foundation also know that abstinence has been on the rise for some time now and that stable family relationships have a strong positive impact on teen sexual behavior.

Too often today parents believe they are powerless to influence their children’s choices. But research shows that is just not true: Parent behavior strongly influences teen sexual behavior. Moreover, youth who remain abstinent do better academically and are more likely to attend and graduate from college than sexually active teens. Policymakers often talk about “family values” but rarely are they able to marshal the evidence that exists showing how important stable family relationships are to American civil society. (more…)